It's been a hellacious 12 months for KTM, as it's gone from one of the powerhouses of the industry, a titan of manufacturing and motorcycling, to nearly dying due to some serious financial screwups. Nearly everything was leveraged to the hilt to support an acquisition model that saw the company grow rapidly.
But it was overconsumption, and everything hit the proverbial fan when consumer spending fell, yet pricing and production didn't fall with it.
The brand has since been saved by Bajaj, which was already producing KTM's small-displacement motorcycles like the new 390s, and got a healthy infusion of cash to not only restart production, but also begin to pay off its creditors, and hire folks after mass layoffs. And, if you're to believe KTM's new CEO Gottfried Neumeister, in the short month after its saving, it's almost immediately on the right footing. And it's already sold more than 100,000 motorcycles this year globally. Hey, that sounds great!
And that's the headline I've seen everywhere across motorcycle and powersports media. But if you dig into what KTM's press release actually states, the reality of the situation is drastically different. One that doesn't support its return to Titanic heights.
Yeah, KTM isn't saying whether those 100,000 motorcycles sold are old motorcycles that've been languishing on dealership lots or include the 50,000 new motorcycles it's shipped to dealerships. And even if those 100,000 motorcycles are all old bikes, there are still another 150,000 motorcycles sitting on lots. Some are probably even from 2023.
KTM's press release states, "In the first half of 2025, KTM delivered 50,286 motorcycles to dealers and importers," adding, "More than 100,000 motorcycles were sold to end customers worldwide." Now, two things. First, delivered isn't sold. Delivered is just that, delivered. Not sold. And with dealerships being what they are, they tend to sit on products for a little bit before they're sold. It's why KTM had a year's worth of idle inventory on dealership floors when shit hit the fan last year.
The brand even admits this, stating, "Due to the positive sales figures in the first six months, KTM was able to significantly reduce inventory levels."
And second, KTM doesn't say what the breakdown is of those motorcycles delivered. But we know a few things based on what KTM has already stated publicly about its production process this year. And that's these motorcycles are likely the 390s that Bajaj was already producing, not those out of Mattighofen.
See, because of the production pauses throughout the year, KTM stated that it had only built around 4,000 motorcycles in Austria. The last pause lifted only a few weeks ago, but the company was still having parts supplier issues due to non-payment and creditors knocking at their doors. However, in another press release, it stated that the new small-displacement 390 lineup wouldn't be affected by the pauses, and would reach dealerships in time because they are manufactured by Bajaj, not KTM. So those 50,000 new motorcycles are likely nearly all the 390s.
But again, KTM didn't offer a breakdown of what's been sold, what model years dominate those sales, and how this has actually affected KTM's piling up inventory. And that's important, as when RideApart looked at a handful of dealerships throughout the United States when the story about its inventory broke, there were a number of dealers with motorcycles from 2023 still. One dealership near me still has 2023 motorcycles, along with 19 models from 2024. And that's just one single dealership out of the hundreds it has.
So is KTM out of the woods as those other headlines, and Neumeister's statements, would have you believe? I wouldn't start counting my chickens just yet.
